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Close laundry detergent right after

use, says expert

Anorexia may be triggered by a defect in the brain SCIENCE+HEALTHMONDAY 23 | APRIL 2012

NEW DELHI

LLoonnddoonn:: A faulty gene thatincreases breast cancerrisk in women also quadru-ples the chances of prostatecancer among men, says arecent study. “Until now,there has been some doubtas to whether mutations inthe BRCA1 gene increasethe risk of prostate can-cer,” said Ros Eeles, profes-sor at the Institute ofCancer Research inLondon, who conductedthe research.

“Our study has shownthat men with prostate can-cer have a one in 200chance of having an alter-ation of this gene and menwith this alteration have a3.8 fold increased risk ofdeveloping the disease,”said Eeles, the BritishJournal of Cancer reports.

Men carrying a faultyBRCA1 gene have a one in11 chance of developingprostate cancer by 65years, the study said.

— IANS

ooddddss

Algeria coup against De Gaulle

PPaarriiss:: French troops led byretired generals revoltingagainst President de Gaulle’sAlgerian policy seized Algiersin a dramatic bloodless couptoday. They said they hadacted to “keep the army oathof May 13, 1958, to keepAlgeria within French sover-eignty.” But in Paris theGovernment said it was tak-ing the “necessary steps” todeal with the revolt. M.Michel Debre, French PrimeMinister said that Generals inOran and Constantine hadrejected an ultimatum to jointhe rebels. He announced in abroadcast that M. Louis Joxe,minister of state for AlgerianAffairs, had left for an undis-closed destination in Algeriaaccompanied by Gen. JeanOlie, named as newCommander in Chief inAlgeria, General Olie is Chiefof Staff of National Defence.M. Debre urged “all those whohave a responsibility” not tosink into an adventure whichcould only have a tragictomorrow for the nation. MrDebre made his broadcastafter two talks with Presidentde Gaulle. An emergencyCabinet meeting is to be heldlater today. Police swooped onrightwing activists in Parisand made some arrests, but anumber of people sought bypolice have disappeared fromtheir homes. — AFP

‘FAULTY GENE UPSPROSTATE CANCERRISK AMONG MEN’

LLoonnddoonn:: It appears thatnagging is good for yourhealth, especially if you areabove 30, as it acts like aconstant reminder for peo-ple to lose weight orbecome more active, a newstudy has found. Thestudy, which was based ona series of interviews fromthe UK, showed that theleast active people felt thatconstant nagging fromtheir family — spouse orchildren — affected theirhealth in a positive way.In the study, researchersfrom the University ofLincoln focused on modifi-able social influences onmotivation towards physi-cal activity, rather thanfixed factors used to pre-dict health such as genderand ethnicity. Theseincluded giving impetus;supporting progress withemotional and moral sup-port; logistical support likelooking after the kids forsome time; and makingactivity itself a socialendeavour, such as goingwith friends. “The aim ofthis study was to help peo-ple examine their lifestyleas a whole and establishwhat the key factors are ininfluencing their activitylevels,” study author DrRichard Keegan was quot-ed as saying by the DailyMail. — PTI

IT’S NOW OFFICIAL:NAGGING IS GOODFOR YOUR HEALTH

SCIENTISTS MAKENEW DISCOVERY IN MALARIA CURE

My therapistcalled me thewrong name.I poured outmy heart; my

doctor looked at his watch.My psychiatrist told me Ihad to keep seeing him or Iwould be lost.

New patients tell methings like this all thetime. And they tell me howformer therapists sat, lis-tened, nodded and offeredlittle or no advice, forweeks, months, sometimesyears. A patient recentlytold me that, after seeingher therapist for severalyears, she asked if he hadany advice for her. Thetherapist said, “See younext week.”

When I started practisingas a therapist 15 years ago,I thought complaints likethis were anomalous. But Ihave come to a soberingconclusion over the years:ineffective therapy is dis-turbingly common.

Talk to friends, keep yourears open at a cafe, or readdiscussion boards onlineabout length of time intherapy. I bet you’ll findmany people who haveremained in therapy longbeyond the time theythought it would take tosolve their problems.According to a 2010 studypublished in the AmericanJournal of Psychiatry, 42

per cent of people in psy-chotherapy use 3 to 10 vis-its for treatment, while 1 in9 have more than 20 ses-sions.

For this 11 per cent, ther-apy can become a dead-endrelationship. Researchshows that, in many cases,the longer therapy lasts theless likely it is to be effec-tive. Still, therapists areoften reluctant to admitdefeat. A 2001 study pub-lished in the Journal ofCounselling Psychologyfound that patientsimproved most dramatical-ly between their seventhand tenth sessions.Another study, publishedin 2006 in the Journal ofConsulting and ClinicalPsychology, looked at near-ly 2,000 people who under-

went Counselling for 1 to 12sessions and found thatwhile 88 percent improvedafter one session, the ratefell to 62 percent after 12.Yet, according to researchconducted at theUniversity ofPennsylvania, therapistswho practice more tradi-tional psychotherapy treatpatients for an average of22 sessions before conclud-ing that progress isn’tbeing made. Just 12 percent of those therapistschoose to refer their stag-nant patients to anotherpractitioner. The bottomline: Even though extendedtherapy is not always bene-ficial, many therapists per-sist in leading patients onan open-ended, potentiallyendless, therapeutic

course. Proponents of long-term

therapy have argued thatsevere psychological disor-ders require years to man-age. That may be true, butit’s also true that manytherapy patients don’t suf-fer severe disorders.Anxiety and depressionare the top predicamentsfor which patients seekmental health treatment;schizophrenia is at the bot-tom of the list.

In my experience, mostpeople seek therapeutichelp for discrete, treatableissues: they are stuck inunfulfilling jobs or rela-tionships, they can’t reachtheir goals, are fearful ofchange and depressed as aresult. It doesn’t take yearsof therapy to get to the bot-

tom of those kinds of prob-lems. For some of mypatients, it doesn’t eventake a whole session.

Therapy can — andshould — focus on goalsand outcomes, and peopleshould be able to graduatefrom it. In my practice, thepeople who spent years intherapy before coming tome were able to face theirfears, calm their anxietiesand reach life goals quick-ly — often within weeks.

Why? I believe it’s a mat-ter of approach. Manypatients need an aggres-sive therapist who prodsthem to face what they finduncomfortable: change.They need a therapist’sopinion, advice and struc-tured action plans. Theydon’t need to talk endlessly

about how they feel orabout childhood memories.A recent study by theNational Institute forHealth and Welfare inFinland found that “active,engaging and extrovertedtherapists” helped patientsmore quickly in the shortterm than “cautious, non-intrusive therapists.”

This approach may not beright for every patient, butthe results described in theFinnish study are consis-tent with my experience.

If a patient comes to meand tells me she’s beenunhappy with herboyfriend for the past year,I don’t ask, as some might,“How do you feel aboutthat?” I already know howshe feels about that. Shejust told me. She’s unhap-py. When she asks me whatI think she should do, Idon’t respond with areturn interrogatory,“What do you think youshould do?” If she knew,she wouldn’t ask me for mythoughts.

Instead I ask what mightbe missing from her rela-tionship and sketch outpossible ways to fill in rela-tionship gaps or, perhaps,to end it in a healthy way.Rather than dwell on thepast and hash out storiesfrom childhood, I encour-age patients to find thecourage to confront anadversary, take risks andembrace change. My aim isto give patients the skillsneeded to confront theirfear of change, rather thanto nod my head and askhow they feel.

In graduate school, my

classmates and I weretaught to serve as guides,whose job it is to helppatients reach their ownconclusions. This maywork, but it can take a longtime. I don’t think patientswant to take years to feelbetter. They want to do itin weeks or months.

Popular misconceptionsreinforce the belief thattherapy is about resting ona couch and talking aboutone’s problems. So that’swhat patients often do.And just as often this leadsto codependence. The ther-apist, of course, depends onthe patient for money, andthe patient depends on thetherapist for emotionalsupport. And, for manytherapy patients, it is satis-fying just to have someonelisten, and they leave ses-sions feeling better.

But there’s a differencebetween feeling good andchanging your life. Feelingaccepted and validated byyour therapist doesn’tpush you to reach yourgoals. To the contrary, itmight even encourage youto stay mired in dysfunc-tion.

Therapy sessions canwork like spa appoint-ments: they can be relax-ing but don’t necessarilyhelp solve problems. Morethan an oasis of kindnessor a cozy hour of validationand acceptance, mostpatients need smart strate-gies to help them achieverealistic goals.

I’m not against therapy.After all, I practice it. Butask yourself: if your hair-stylist keeps giving youbad haircuts, do you keepgoing back? If a restaurantserves you a lousy meal, doyou make another reserva-tion? No, I’m sure youwouldn’t, and you should-n’t stay in therapy thatisn’t helping you, either.

Jonathan Alpert is a NewYork psychotherapist andthe author of Be Fearless:

Change Your Life in 28Days

By arrangement with the New York Times

■ Therapyshould focuson goals and

outcomes,and people

should beable to grad-

uate from it

Is therapy forever? It’s enough already

It seems the irony in sci-entific publishing willnot go unnoticed any-

more. Everywhere, peopleare asking the same ques-tion: how come results ofnew research and experi-mentation are kept behinda paywall, away from thepeople that funded it in thefirst place? It is only fairthat publicly funded pro-jects and those paid for bycharities are made avail-able to everyone free ofcost. Traditionally, sub-scription journals charge alarge amount for access totheir content, in print andonline. Universities andlibraries pay for thisaccess while the ones thatcan’t afford it stay unin-formed, subsequentlyuninitiated to contempo-rary work in science. Thisis a highly deprived statein countries like Indiawhere the scientific com-munity is not budgingfrom its primitive placedespite more and moreinvestment. “Quite a fewinternational journalscharge $20,000 or 25,000 peryear. Obviously in ourcountry this is unafford-able,” said SubbiahArunachalam, a long-timeexpert of the internationalopen access movement,influential activist in thescientific community andIndia’s open access go-toman.

“At universities likeHarvard, several tens ofthousands of journals are

sustained in the library.Whereas, about 12 yearsago the best library inIndia — the IndianAcademy of Sciences inBengaluru — subscribed toonly 1,800 journals. Thisnumber was reduced to1,200 at some point due tothe costs.”

Even more unfair is thefact that scientific institu-tions at large, where thiswork is being done, howev-er established, end up pay-ing for continued access tocontent they themselvesare creating and editingthrough mostly volun-teered peer review. Bigpublishers like Elsevierhouse thousands of disci-pline specific journalswhose access can bebought in bundle prices,making them a large prof-it. Their disproportionatemargins along with nocommitment to the princi-ple of open access hasangered scientists. Nearly10,000 academics havejoined a campaign calledCost of Knowledge thatpledges to boycottElsevier.

One of the signatories,Manindra Agarwal, profes-sor of computer science atIIT Kanpur and editor ofmany academic journalsexplained: “The campaignis an expression of theuneasiness the academiccommunity has with manypublishers. Academic pub-lishing is a peculiar busi-ness: the academiciansproduce the content, acad-emicians review it, bothfor free, and then academi-cians pay the publishers toread it!”

Agarwal thinks that paidsubscription would make

sense if they “1. charge rea-sonable amounts and 2.take a lead in promotingknowledge.” He noticedElsevier does not take anyof this seriously while onthe advisory board of theirIndia operations, but thatrelationship has nowended.

Individual scientists arenot the only ones puttingtheir weight behind theOA movement; joiningthem are some major fund-ing bodies that have thepower to mandate a policyof open access publishing.From July 2012, WorldBank’s bank research out-puts and knowledge prod-ucts will be freely avail-able from its open reposito-ry — a “natural evolution”step as described by thePresident Robert B.Zoellick.

Welcome Trust, one ofthe world’s largest privatemedical research funders,recently declared it wantedto make sure any litera-ture form the research itfunds is available freewithin six months of itspublication. The UK sci-

ence ministry also noddedin support. The launch of anew OA journal calledeLife is awaited — a scien-tific journal on par withmarket leaders like Natureand Science but completelyfree to access from any-where in the world by any-one. There are many OAjournals already out there,about 7,800 and the num-bers are growing. In 2000, aCoK like campaign butmuch larger (34,000 signa-tures from 180 countries)instigated by a NobelLaureate and his friendsled to the founding ofPublic Library of Sciencejournals. These journalsare completely free toaccess and the cost of pub-lishing comes from theauthors whose papers arebeing published, expensesare pulled out from theresearch funding ratherthan charging readers.Today PLoS journals arevery popular, “hotcakes”Mr Arunachalam callsthem, a beacon in OAmovement, leading theway in exploring new busi-ness and publishing mod-els for academic literature.

Another big aspect of theOA movement are therepositories. Academicsself-archive their paperand add it the stream ofresearch literature flowingthrough a virtual place onthe web. These can servetwo purposes. Firstly, itcan turn paid-for inaccessi-ble content into OA, forexample the US govern-ment funding body NIHdictates any research itfunds to be deposited intoPubMed central repository6 months after its accep-tance into any journal.

Secondly, like in the caseof arXiv.org, they providea space for any academic toput forth their work with-out any formal refereeingprocess and ask for review-ing suggestions. The focusappears to be shifting fromjournals to individualresearch papers.Nonetheless everyoneagrees that OA does notmean the death of journals.“Publishing” in a journalis very different from“placing” in a repositoryfor various reasons.

Excerpts from an inter-view with Chennai-basedscientometrist SubbiahArunachalam, retired fel-low of the M.S. Swami-nathan ResearchFoundation and formersecretary of the IndianAcademy of Sciences.

QQ.. WWhhyy iiss ooppeenn aacccceessssiimmppoorrttaanntt ttoo rreesseeaarrcchheerrssiinn IInnddiiaa??AA.. The OA movementstarted in the West it is ofmuch more importance tous. Science builds on theinformation that is avail-able, and journals are thesource. In this scenario,open access facilitates freeavailability of journal con-tent. OA is far more impor-tant to you and me in thedeveloping world than peo-ple in the West. Becausetheir libraries subscribe toseveral thousand journals,more than any library inIndia or all libraries puttogether can sustain. Theyhave money and they sus-tain.

QQ.. HHooww,, tthheenn,, ddoo IInnddiiaannrreesseeaarrcchheerrss aacccceessss iinntteerr--nnaattiioonnaall sscciieennccee??AA.. Then University Grants

Commission and the gov-ernment stepped in andformed consortia, severalinstitutions joined intogether and subscribed toa bundle of journals frommajor publishers. AnyIndian scientist at theseinstitutes can access, ifthey want to, about 8,000journals. UGC’s consortiais called INFLIBNET,there are other groups likethe CSIR-DST joint consor-tia. But several million dol-lars are spent on this. Ifinternational research hadopen access, this moneycould have been saved.

QQ.. HHooww pprreevvaalleenntt iiss OOAA iinnIInnddiiaa??AA.. Today there are morethan 360 open access jour-nals in India. None of themcharge a paisa for readingor publishing. I have beensending out hundreds ofemails trying to engageIndian institutes in openaccess for most part of myprofessional career. Noone wants to take the ini-tiative. Now they are allbeing forced literally. Thefirst thing to happen was atCSIR. The director generalinstructed all the laborato-ries to set up a freely acces-sible repository. This hasbeen successful in recentyears. My efforts in per-suading the director of theCSIR to have an openaccess policy also paid offtwo years ago when all its17 journals were madeopen-access. Further, morethan 80,000 papers are heldin the repository of IndianAcademy of Sciences. It isthe first academy in theentire world to have arepository for all its fel-lows, the first in the world.

Open access movement: Towardsmaking scientific research public

healthJonathan Alpert

scienceAashima Dogra

A recent study by the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland found that “active, engaging and extrovert-ed therapists” helped patients more quickly in the short term than “cautious, nonintrusive therapists”. — MCT

In my experience,most people seektherapeutic helpfor discrete issu-es: they are stuckin unfulfilling jobsor relationships,they can’t reachtheir goals

50 YEARS AGO IN

LLoonnddoonn:: Scientists haveidentified a key proteincommon to malaria para-sites, opening the way tomore effective vaccines ordrugs against the life-threatening infectionscaused by the micro-organ-isms. The protein hassticky properties thatenable it to bind to redblood cells among humansand other animals andform dangerous clumpsthat can block blood ves-sels. These clumps cancause severe illness,including coma and braindamage. Scientists fromthe University ofEdinburgh worked withresearchers from Came-roon, Mali, Kenya and theGambia to test their anti-bodies against the para-sites collected frompatients, Public Library ofScience Patho-gens,reports. Alexa-ndra Rowe,professor at the EdinburghSchool of BiologicalSciences, who led thestudy, said: “We knew thatclusters, or rosettes, ofblood cells were found inmany cases of severe orlife-threatening malaria, sowe looked at rosette-form-ing parasites and found acommon factor that wecould target with antibod-ies.” “We hope this discov-ery will inform new treat-ments or vaccines to blockthe formation of rosettesand prevent many life-threatening cases of malar-ia,” added Rowe, accordingto an Edinburgh statement.

Presently, between 10 and20 per cent of people withsevere malaria die from it,and the disease, kills onemillion people every year.The parasites, once in thebloodstream, are able toalter the protein moleculeson their surfaces to evadeattack by the immune sys-tem. — IANS

SSuubbbbiiaahh AArruunnaacchhaallaamm